Treasure Discovered inside Humayun’s Tomb
While doing the conservation at Humayun’s tomb, a stunning discovery of hidden paintings in blue, yellow, red and white, and some even in gold. The domed ceiling is located at the 16th-century Sabz Burj, a Mughal monument near Humayun’s tomb. Sabz Burj (or Green Tower, although the dome is blue on the outside), is among the earliest Mughal buildings influenced by Timurid architecture and richly ornamented with glazed ceramic tiles and decorative lattice stonework
The conservation work was supervised under the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Archaeological Survey of India, and experts say it is for the first time that an early 16th century wall paintings have been found on a monument in Delhi.
When they removed the cement and lime-wash layers, remnants of painted decorations were discovered on the domed ceiling which would have originally been completely covered with floral paintings with blue, yellow, red, white, and even gold, being the predominant colors. Treasure Discovered inside Humayun’s Tomb
Though traces of wall paintings were visible on the wall surfaces, it was expected that the ceiling would be ornamented with the usual incised lime plaster patterns. But the painted ceiling stunned everyone
Architecture of Humayun’s Tomb
Humayun’s eldest wife Bega Begam took initiative to build the tomb of her husband. In 1569, she employed Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect to build this wonderful monument. This red sandstone tomb is built amidst a square garden divided into four main parterres known as charbagh. At the center of this garden a shallow water-channel can be seen. There are two double-storied gateways on the west and south of the monument. The center of the western wall is occupied by a baradari (pavilion) and a hammam (bathroom) is found at the center of northern wall. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Monument in 1993.
